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Wow, an important question, I congratulate you for your environmental awareness!

Yes, most certainly they do.

It’s easy to understand. One of the fundamental physical principles of our Space-Matter-Time universe is that matter - protons and by all practical means also neutrons, the little guys every atom and ultimately objects such as tires and organisms such as human bodies consists of - are indestructible.

In simple terms: Everything that is no longer part of your tires cannot disappear, it must be in some form somewhere else in your environment.

Car tires must be made of materials that are naturally as unrecyclable as possible. Else, your tires would instantly start to rotten the moment they are produced and later put on your car, whether you drive around at all or not.

The moment your car starts to move, every inch you drive, the parts of your tires that are touching the ground below them are physically sandpapered. In other words, tiny bits of your tires are torn off continuously. It is physically unavoidable. That is why your tires wear at all - almost in direct relationship to the km/miles you have accumulated with them. You cannot drive around without polluting environment with such particles.

However, with tire-conscious driving skills (e.g. with a tire-conscious accelerating, breaking, and turning technique), you can substantially reduce unnecessary tear of your tires, hence, achieve both, a longer “life” of your tires and less tire particles you pollute our environment with per km/mile driven.

Tire particles are non-negotiably toxic in as much as they do not naturally exist. Hence, no human organism is equipped in any way to deal with them.

They are as tiny as tire manufacturers can manage. A fast wearing tire does not sell well. Hence, they are too light to settle down fast, they are mostly floating in the air, carried over enormous distances and spread everywhere by wind.

Doing that, they become a serious threat to all breathing animals (including yourself and e.g. your pets), clogging up lungs exactly the same way (and in no way less harmfully) as the cinders of a cigarette you smoke would.

Hence, tire particles are “carcinogens” (increasing risk of cancer) and before that they are serious “allergens” that trigger allergic reactions of parts of our body that are in direct contact with polluted air, particularly your skin and your entire respiratory tract.

Note, it does not matter by what means your car drives. An electric car is in no way better in this respect. Contrary, it is likely worse as long as it is battery powered because it is slightly heavier than the same model with a gasoline or diesel engine would be, which forces tires to wear faster. Hence, you must produce more tire particles per km/mile driven.

Tire particles are a substantial component of cinder-type toxic “micro-dust”, that actually hardly settles and travels extremely far - carried by wind. By quantity, tire particles are certainly some of the worst (yet widely ignored) man-made air pollutants.

While floating in the air, tire particles absorb sunlight by warming up. They conserve the heat and carry it over into the night. They have no choice but to contribute to global warming, forced by the laws of physics.

The only thing that can get tire particles out of the air for good to some degree is rain.

However, rain does not make them disappear. They are now in the soil we produce food on and fall on trees, forests, waterbodies, etc.. They are in the water system of our planet - as toxic as ever - and way too tiny for us to have a chance to filter them out mechanically (they are in fact smaller than microscopic).

The only way to get them out of the water for good would be chemically, extremely expensive and practically impossible. We would also have to filter rainwater falling on fields, trees, and forests. Hence, many tire particles have no option but to poison soils, end up in rivers, lakes and ultimately accumulate in oceans.

Some water filters you may use to purify the water you drink may reduce (not eliminate) the number of tire particles you swallow, However, the rest of them are now in your water filter. Your filter, too, cannot make them disappear. What do you do with it when replacing it?

Micro-dust - in particular also tire particles - produced by motor-vehicles has been recognized as a serious health issue in some European countries. In some areas, this has lead to speed limits. Of course, this is a lame symptom fighting approach. However it is slightly better than nothing, it reduces the maximum possible number of driving cars per hour on a given road, hence the maximum possible particle pollution per hour.

Technology - such as cars - cannot make human life easier. There is no technological comfort whatsoever without its considerable non-negotiable price, a price that would not have to be paid without technology.

Possible solutions:

The only working solution that could decrease tire particle pollution globally (tire particles transported by air couldn’t care less about human political boundaries, whether in the air, on soil, or in water) would of course be less total km/miles driven anywhere on the planet.

This can be achieved in two ways: Either by enforcing a continuously decreasing global maximum km/milage allowance per driver and lifetime (drastic reduction of individual freedom) or by producing a little less babies than people die (reducing the number of future polluters) - or, for quicker results, a combination of both.

There is no other way to effectively reduce global environmental pollution by tire particles, unless we humans stop using cars.

Benefit of a birth control solution would be that it does not cost any money, does not harm anyone alive, and could be implemented immediately. It would also granted reduce man-made contribution to global warming and simultaneously all other effects of all other forms of man-made pollution. As side effect, it would also simultaneously increase individual health, ease of life, and personal freedom …

As said, as human biologist, I find your question an important one. Thank you for asking!

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The micro-fine particles USED to be part of the environment. The materials that make them up did not come from a parallel dimension where materials unknown to man exist.

When the particles are that small they are severely degraded into their FORMER components by ultra--violet light from the Sun, like being continuously hit by microscopic photon bullets.

Ever had tires 'Dry Rot" on you? Over time the tires on the sun side of a long term parked in the sun RV will be severely degraded and dangerous ... as my neighbor learned last summer. Before his vacation was over, he had to replace three "new" tires that had been exposed to sun for many years ... all on the sun side.

.... but I digress .....

The micro-fine particles combine with water and dust, and are eaten by microbes.

That is why you do not see drifts of black tire dust on the sides of the roads.

Can I interest you in some Global Warming "Carbon Credits"?

I can print some up for you to make it seem you are "saving the planet", and charge you a lot of money to assume your guilt with this new-found religion.

It's a win-win situation ...... You get to think you are doing something to save the planet ... (how HAPPY She will be ! ), and I get your money!

The only downside, is the greatest scam ever developed has brokers of Carbon Credits ... who want THEIR broker's commission ... like Al Gore.

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People needs to go slowly through life. That means .... walk barefoot, and watch/look/see aka learning around yourself. :))

... and stop from time to time to look at the sky, the birds, and the flowers ... an pick the broken glass out of the bottoms of your bleeding feet .... and massage and scratch the bee stings between your toes that are driving you so absolutely crazy that you want to cut your swollen toes off with a knife.

(CNN)Around 93% of the world's children under 15 years of age breathe air that is so polluted it puts their health and development at serious risk, accounting for 1.8 billion children, according to a report published by the World Health Organization ahead of its first global conference on air pollution and health in Geneva.
In 2016, 600,000 children were estimated to have died from acute lower respiratory infections caused by polluted air.
Air pollution is one of the leading threats to health in children under 5, accounting for almost one in 10 deaths among this age group, the report reveals.
"This is inexcusable. Every child should be able to breathe clean air so they can grow and fulfil their full potential" said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement.
Air pollution also effects neurological development and cognitive ability and can trigger asthma and childhood cancer, the report says. Children exposed to excessive pollution may also be at greater risk of chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease in adulthood.
"Air pollution is stunting our children's brains, affecting their health in more ways than we suspected. But there are many straightforward ways to reduce emissions of dangerous pollutants," said Dr. Maria Neira, director of the Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health at the WHO.
According to the WHO, children are more susceptible to pollution because they breathe more often, taking in more pollutants, and are closer to the ground, which is where some pollutants have higher concentrations.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/29/health/air-pollution-children-health-who-india-intl/index.html

What goes around, comes around, eventually. The latest karmic zinger is how likely you now are to find plastic particles, from packaging you might have once used, in your sea salt.
Each year, humans dump 13 million metric tons of plastic into the ocean. Some of that plastic begins its life as tiny particles, such as microbeads in face scrubs and toothpaste; others as larger pieces that get broken down through mechanical or chemical means. Estimates vary, but there’s no doubt the amount of plastic now in the oceans is substantial: one 2014 study found that there are more than 5 trillion plastic pieces sharing the seas with marine life, 92% of which are microplastics less than five millimeters (0.2 inches) in size.
Of the many ways that microplastics make their way back to us, the simplest one is through the food cycle. Tiny marine organisms like krill ingest microplastics, which are about the same size as the zooplankton they feed on. The krill then get eaten by salmon, which eventually are served in restaurants around the world. Just in case mercury concentrations weren’t enough to show us the consequences of a fish-eat-fish world, persistent plastics are a painful reminder.
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The Clean Seas campaign was launched last week, aimed at eliminating major sources of marine plastic and changing shopping habits.
The United Nations has declared war on plastic. In an unexpected announcement that emerged from the Economist World Ocean Summit in Bali last week, the UN officially launched its ‘Clean Seas’ campaign. The goal is to eliminate major sources of pollution, including microplastics in cosmetics and single-use disposable plastics, by pressuring governments and individuals to rethink the way goods are packaged and their own shopping habits.
Erik Solheim, head of UN Environment, stated:
“It is past time that we tackle the plastic problem that blights our oceans. Plastic pollution is surfing onto Indonesian beaches, settling onto the ocean floor at the North Pole, and rising through the food chain onto our dinner tables. We’ve stood by too long as the problem has gotten worse. It must stop.”
It’s a problem that must be dealt with as aggressively as possible. Scientists say that the equivalent of a dump truck load of plastic is deposited in the world’s oceans every minute, and this quantity will only increase as consumption and population grow, too. By 2050, it’s said there will be more plastic than fish in the seas. The UN writes, “As many as 51 trillion microplastic particles – 500 times more than stars in our galaxy – litter our seas, seriously threatening marine wildlife.”
On the campaign website, people can commit to certain actions to combat their personal plastic pollution, such as not using disposable grocery bags, bringing their own coffee cup, avoiding cosmetics with microbeads, and pressuring firms to reduce excess packaging. The campaign’s press release says it will make announcements throughout the year, highlighting advances made by countries and companies to reduce disposable plastics.

Some countries have taken noteworthy steps, with ten already signing onto the #CleanSeas campaign. Indonesia, for example, has pledged to reduce marine litter by 70 percent by 2025, and Costa Rica says it will “take measures to dramatically reduce single-use plastic through better waste management and education.” Other nations are turning to taxes on plastic bags.
The UN Clean Seas campaign is a good place to start, as it will spread the awareness of a little-known problem much further afield. Awareness, however, is just the first small step. It must translate into real lifestyle changes in order to make any sort of difference. It requires people to think ahead – request no straw with a drink, pack containers and bags when going to the store, trade in the diaper wipes for a washcloth, kick the bottled water habit – and it requires municipal governments to take a strong, often unpopular, stance.

Just as microbeads are being eliminated in many places, plastic shopping bags should be, too; or at least the tax should be high enough to deter anyone, say $5 a bag, instead of 5 cents. Every town should have a bulk food store where the use of reusable containers is incentivized. Styrofoam and plastic takeout containers should be made illegal. Places to return packaging directly to manufacturers should be built alongside recycling facilities, based on the successful model of returning wine and beer bottles for refund in the province of Ontario. Schools need to start teaching children to care proactively for the Earth and to live with a reduced footprint, much like the strong anti-littering messages taught in Japan.
Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard quotes Wang Yang Ming in his book, Let My People Go Surfing: “To know and not to do is not to know.” Hopefully the Clean Seas campaign will be that crucial first step toward informing greater swaths of the world’s population and inspiring them to further action.
http://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/un-says-its-time-tackle-plastic-pollution-aggressively.html

Goodyear presented a vision of a future tire that looks radically different from tires today — it’s a sphere.

Goodyear unveiled its latest concept tire, Eagle-360, at the Geneva International Motor Show. The spherical, 3-D printed tire highlights Goodyear’s vision for the future and presents an inspiring solution for the long-term future when autonomous driving is expected to be more mainstream.

According to a recent study from Navigant Research, 85 million autonomous-capable vehicles are expected to be sold annually around the world by 2035, for example. According to the J.D. Power 2015 U.S. Tech Choice Study, consumers are most concerned with ensuring safety through technology in autonomous cars.

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